Middle School | Grades 6–8 LA AMISTAD GLOBAL INCIDENT ...

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LEARNING STANDARDS

See the standards alignment chart to learn how this lesson supports New Jersey State Standards.

VOCABUL ARY

abolitionist

Amistad

enslaved

enslaver

transatlantic slave trade

stereotype

MATERIALS

→ AV equipment to show a video and project images

→ Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Amistad handout (one per student)

→ Primary Sources: La Amistad handout (one per student)

→ Station sources (one copy of the following for each station, enlarged): Entry in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac Editorial from The Democrat Letter from Cinqué to Lewis Tappan

→ Cinqué Portrait by Nathaniel Jocelyn handout (one to project)

→ Sticky notes

TIME NEEDED

60 minutes

OBJECTIVES

Students will:

→ Explore the key events and significance of the 1839 Amistad rebellion.

→ Analyze primary source documents to understand perspectives on the Amistad case and slavery in the mid-1800s.

→ Interpret a portrait of the rebellion’s leader to learn about prevailing stereotypes of people of African descent, and how abolitionists countered them.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What was the significance of the Amistad rebellion for enslaved people, for free African Americans and for all Americans?

Middle School | Grades 6–8

LA AMISTAD: GLOBAL INCIDENT. PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES

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51DEHUMANIZATION—ENSLAVED PEOPLE

Procedures

1 Project the image of the ship La Amistad, at https://www.history.com/topics/abolitionist-movement/amistad-case. Ask students if they have heard of this case and allow them to share their prior knowledge. Provide a brief overview of the Amistad rebellion and court case using information from the History.com article or by showing one of the following videos:

→ “ The Amistad” (1:21): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE1xFtoFvco.

→ “ The Amistad Case: ‘Give us Free’” (7:22): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_zTN6tsDpw&t=18s.

2 Distribute a copy of the handout Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Amistad to each student and project the definition below. Individually or in pairs, have students trace the route of the African captives on the map and write a definition of the transatlantic slave trade in their own words. Allow them to add details or illustrations reflecting what they have learned about the journey of the captives so far. Provide access to atlases as needed.

[The] transatlantic slave trade [was a] segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was the second of three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, slaves from Afri-ca to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe. (Source: Transatlantic Slave Trade by Thomas Lewis, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlan-tic-slave-trade)

N O T E A B O U T L A N G UA G E When discussing slavery with students, it is suggested the term “enslaved person” be used instead of “slave” to emphasize their humanity; that “enslaver” be used instead of “master” or “owner” to show that slavery was forced upon human beings; and that “freedom seeker” be used instead of “runaway” or “fugitive” to emphasize justice and avoid the connotation of lawbreaking.

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3 Tell students they will analyze and compare several primary sources about the Amistad incident, written between 1839 and 1841, in order to better understand the perspectives of people during that era. Distribute the Primary Sources: La Amistad handout to each student and review the directions with them.

4 Set up stations for each source below by placing an enlarged version of the handouts in separate work areas. Depending on the class size, you may need two stations for each source. Divide students into small groups and assign them to rotate stations until they have read and recorded their observations for all three sources. Circulate while students are working, and support them with any challenging language and concepts.

SOURCES

→ Entry in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac

→ Editorial from The Democrat

→ Letter from Cinqué to Lewis Tappan

5 Debrief on the stations exercise using some of the following questions:

→ What language or ideas did the anti-abolitionist writer use to influence his readers?

→ What stereotypes or bias did you notice in the Anti-Slavery Almanac, even though its writers were supportive of the captives?

→ What did you observe about Cinqué’s tone? Did his manner surprise you? Explain.

→ Overall, what did you take away about attitudes toward Black people and slavery in the mid-1800s?

→ Why is it important to read primary sources and to not rely only on secondary sources?

6 Project the handout Cinqué Portrait by Nathaniel Jocelyn. Share that the portrait was commissioned by Robert Purvis, a wealthy Black abolitionist from Philadelphia, to fight against the stereotype of Africans as savages who were unworthy of freedom. Explain that stereotypes against people of African descent were common in newspapers,

N O T EFor each source, a brief excerpt is featured. Students should focus only on this excerpt, rather than trying to decipher the entire selection. Students who are able to go further can access the full text on a laptop or tablet using the URLs at the bottom of each source.

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53DEHUMANIZATION—ENSLAVED PEOPLE

theater, art and literature of the day, and that abolitionists understood they had to change perceptions in order to end slavery.

7 Direct students to observe the portrait closely and identify symbols the artist used to shift people’s ideas about people of African descent. In pairs or small groups, have them write each symbol they notice on a separate sticky note. Then invite groups, one at a time, to post one of their notes onto the portrait and explain their thinking. Continue this process until a variety of ideas have been explored. Use the following to guide the discussion as needed:1

→ Cinqué’s faraway gaze makes him look thoughtful, visionary and noble.

→ His broad shoulders and strong chest, bicep and collarbones convey strength and power.

→ The staff in his hands symbolizes masculinity and power.

→ The toga he is wearing is associated with ancient Greece or Rome, and symbolizes nobility, heroism, and the political values of western nations.

→ The warm light that shines on his forehead and chest make it seem as though the heavens are illuminating him, and that he is virtuous and intelligent.

→ The background represents an African landscape, but the palm trees suggest a hint of the tropic or exotic, maybe even the American South.

8 Conclude the lesson by discussing the significance of the Amistad case. Emphasize that it is one of the most important court cases in U.S. history because it established that enslaved people were not property to be owned and helped to humanize them, thereby strengthening the abolitionist movement.

N O T EThe Picturing United States History website includes an interactive version of the Cinqué portrait. You can click on sections of the portrait to reveal information about what each represents. See https://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/white-into-black-seeing-race-slavery-and-anti-slavery-in-an-tebellum-america/3/.

1 Sources: Powell, Richard J. “How Cinque was Painted.” Washington Post, December 28, 1997. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1997/12/28/how-cinque-was-paint-ed/64bcb5bd-bae9-4db4-9be8-52352c21a829; Burns, Sarah L. and Brown, Joshua. "White into Black: Seeing Race, Slavery, and Anti-Slavery in Antebellum America." Picturing United States History. https://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/white-into-black-seeing-race-slavery-and-anti-slavery-in-antebellum-america/3.

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Discussion Questions

1 What did you learn from the primary documents that was

new or surprising? What did they reveal about the slave trade or attitudes toward people of African descent?

2

What stereotypes about Black people were common in the mid-1800s? How did these beliefs keep slavery going?

3

How did people of African descent resist stereotypes and false ideas about their humanity?

4

Why was the Amistad rebellion and case important, not just for enslaved people, but for all Americans?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

+ Burns, Sarah L. and Brown, Joshua. "White into Black: Seeing Race, Slavery, and Anti-Slavery in Antebellum America." Picturing United States History. https://pic-turinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/white-into-black-seeing-race-slavery-and-anti-slav-ery-in-antebellum-ameri-ca/3.

+ National Park Service. “The Amistad Story.” https://www.nps.gov/sub-jects/travelamistad/index.htm.

+ NPR/WNYC. “With Powerful Murals, Hale Woodruff Paved The Way For African-American Artists.” https://www.npr.org/2015/12/19/459251265/with-powerful-murals-hale-woodruff-paved-the-way-for-african-american-art-ists.

+ Powell, Richard J. “How Cinque was Painted.” Washington Post, December 28, 1997. https://www.wash-ingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1997/12/28/how-cinque-was-paint-ed/64bcb5bd-bae9-4db4-9be8-52352c21a829.

+ Rediker, Marcus. “Audio Lectures—The Amistad Rebellion.” Mystic Seaport Museum. https://educators.mysticseaport.org/scholars/lectures/amistad_rebellion.

+ Slave Voyages. “Explore the Dispersal of Enslaved Africans Across the Atlantic World.” https://www.slave-voyages.org.

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HANDOUT

Transatlantic Slave Trade: The AmistadNAME:

Trace the route of the African captives on the map and add details or illustrations showing what you know about their journey. Write a definition of the transatlantic slave trade in your own words.

Virginia

Connecticut

New York

Brazil

Cuba

JamaicaBarbados

Sierra Leone

Cape Verde Islands

Gold Coast

Slave Coast

Upper Guinea

Bight of Benin

Kanem- Bornu

Arabian PeninsulaSene-Gambia

R. Niger

Bight of Biafra

São Tomé

Middle East

Angola

Loango

Mozambique

Caribbean Sea

Rio de Janeiro

SOURCE: http://isejarah.fib.unair.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/THE-ATLANTIC-SLAVE-TRADE.pdf

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HANDOUT

Primary Sources: La Amistad

NAME:

Read each primary source and add notes to the chart. Then answer the questions below.

Source Author Important Details Point of View, Biases

1 What did you learn from these primary sources that you might not learn from modern-day secondary sources, like a textbook?

2 What did you learn from reading these different perspectives about attitudes toward Black people and slavery in the mid-1800s?

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HANDOUT

DEHUMANIZATION—ENSLAVED PEOPLE

Entry in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac 1841

NAME:

Source: American anti-slavery almanac, for 1841 New York: Published by S.W. Benedict, 1841 (i.e. 1840). https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2771

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HANDOUT

Editorial from The Democrat (Huntsville, Alabama)November 23, 1839

NAME:

This matter, in connexion with the abolition intrigues, is beginning to assume a most revolting and audacious character—a character that makes the blood boil and the heart burn. On the arrival of these savages in this country, with their hands crimsoned with the blood of several white men, they were seized upon by a band of fanatics, who, under the name of humanity and religion, have been levying contributions on the public while they were proposing to teach these savages the elements of religion and civilization. All sorts of in-trigues have been adopted to deceive the public, and to annoy and harass the foreigners, who hardly escaped with their lives from the Amistad. Under the pupilage of the abolitionists, the savages have been made the instruments of crime and wickedness in order to gratify malignity and hate.

SOURCE: Newspapers.com. “Anti-abolitionist editorial against the arrest of Montes and Ruiz, two Spaniards on the Amistad.” The Democrat (Huntsville, AL), November 23, 1839. https://www.newspapers.com/topics/civil-war/amistad-case.

←

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HANDOUT

DEHUMANIZATION—ENSLAVED PEOPLE

Letter from Cinqué to Lewis TappanFebruary 29, 1841

NAME:

SOURCE: Tulane University Digital Library. “Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Amistad Case.” https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A54194.

N O T E → Cinqué was the Mendi man who led the revolt aboard the Amistad.

→ Lewis Tappan was a New York City businessman and abolitionist, who helped organize the defense of the Amistad captives.

→ John Quincy Adams (“Mr. Adams”) was the sixth president of the United States and defended the Amistad captives before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dear Sir

Mr. Tappan,

I will write you a few lines because I love you very much and I will tell you about Mr. Pendleton keeper [of the jail in New Haven, Connecticut.] He will kill the Mendi people, he says all Mendi people. He want make all black people work for him and he tell bad lie. He says all black people no good, he whip them. He says Mendi men steal, he tell lie, he is wicked, very bad. He says Mendi people drink rum, he tell lie…

…My friend, I want you to tell Mr. Adams about Pendleton he bad. The Lord God want all men to be good and love him, the Lord. Jesus Christ came down to make us turn from sins. He sent the Bible to do good on earth. My friend, I want you to pray to the great God to make us free and go our home and see our friend[s] in Mendi country. We want to see our friends in African Country and we shall pray to God to make our _____ very good and we want the God to have mercy on our friend[s].

Your dear friends

Cinque

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HANDOUT

Cinqué Portrait by Nathaniel Jocelyn

SOURCE: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.69.66.